4-1 Professional Learning and Ethical Practices

The candidate engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to

continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and
actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and
adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.

As a professional educator, it is important to seek opportunities to collaborate and

expand my own knowledge of both teaching and content. While schools have
professional development built into their workdays more often than not, there are
still many of ways to develop oneself professionally.

One way is specifically, as a music educator, the is a statewide music conference

that music educators can go to and seek out professional development. It is called
Kansas Music Educators Association In-Service Workshop. In my first artifact, you
will see a handout that I received from a session on using sign language in music
and classroom management. This provided me with the many ideas to try in my
own classroom, such as using sign language as a different way to personally
connect with the music. The next artifact is a personal statement in which I discuss
how I reflect on a day of teaching. I watch my video back, recall what I was thinking
versus how students reacted, and would make a plan to move forward the next
time I got to teach those students. The third artifact is another personal statement
that details the many discussions that I’ve had with colleagues and other
professionals both inside and out of my content area. In those conversations we
discuss student growth and behaviors and brainstorm ways that we can move
forward for the next time. As a result of this professional practice, student’s benefit
because their learning is constantly improving as we create new ways to engage
students in our content.

Artifacts:
- KMEA Handout Photo
- Personal Statement regarding reflection practices
- Personal Statement regarding collaboration with other colleagues